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Harley MS 2677
- Record Id:
- 040-001628035
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-001628035
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000152.0x00039c
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2677
- Title:
-
C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript contains Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis.
Decoration:
One miniature in colours and gold of Pliny writing in his study, and a landscape with animals, rivers, the sea, sun and moon, combined with a large white vine initial and a three-sided white vine border containing birds and a wreath enclosing the arms of cardinal Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (f. 1r). According to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the miniature was painted by Andrea di Firenze.
Large white vine initials in colours and gold (ff. 31r, 48r, 62v, 79r, 98v, 113r, 128r, 139v, 152r, 168r, 175v, 183v, 192r, 201r, 216v, 235v, 261v, 275v, 308v, 321v, 334r, 347v, 360v, 372v, 383v, 403v, 414r, 425r, 434v,445r, 456r, 468v, 483r 497v). Numerous initials in yellow, gold or white on a red, green or blue panels Initials in gold on a ground combining blue, red and green (ff. 91r-110v). Coloured initials in gold or blue.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Harley Science Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-001628035", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2677: C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-001628035 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2677 : C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), Historia Naturalis - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2678]/040-001628035
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 509 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1452
- End Date:
- 1458
- Date Range:
- c 1457-1458
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 415 x 280 mm (text space: 275/280 x 165 mm).
Foliation: ff. x + 509 (2 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end are original parchment flyleaves). Quire signatures and catchwords.
Script: Humanistic. Written by several scribes.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house bindings. Remains of the Harleian binding (gold-tooled red leather) pasted on the inside covers and f. [ii].
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Central Italy (Rome).
Provenance:
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (b. 1405, d. 1464), of Siena, cardinal from December 1456, pope Pius II from August 1458, or possibly his nephew Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini (b. 1439, d. 1503), cardinal from 1460, pope Pius III from September 1503 : the Piccolomini arms surmounted by a cardinal hat (f. 1r).
?John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; may have been sold to Edward Harley on 9 November 1721 (Diary 1966; Wright 1972).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2677.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 121 n. 4.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 162, 276.
Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 466).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)